Reconceiving rationality: situating rationality into radically enactive cognition

Synthese 198 (Suppl 1):571-590 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Rational beliefs and actions are typically evaluated against certain benchmarks, e.g., those of classical logic or probability theory. Rationality therefore is traditionally taken to involve some sort of reasoning, which in turn implies contentful cognition. Radically Enactive views of Cognition, on the other hand, claim that not all cognition is contentful. In order to show that rationality does not need to lie outside of REC’s scope of radicalizing cognition, I develop a Radically Enactive notion of Rationality, according to which rationality is embodied, situated and contentless. For RER, an organism acts rationally insofar as it sustains a proficient interaction with its environment, which in turn requires the coordination of cognitive abilities in accordance with environmental constraints. Rationality is thus distinguished from reasoning, for reasoning is understood as a capacity to coordinate representational cognitive abilities.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,314

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Embodying Rationality.Enrico Petracca & Antonio Mastrogiorgio - 2006 - In Lorenzo Magnani & Claudia Casadio, Model Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Logical, Epistemological, and Cognitive Issues. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
The uncertain reasoner: Bayes, logic, and rationality.Mike Oaksford & Nick Chater - 2009 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (1):105-120.
The rational analysis of human cognition.Nick Chater & Mike Oaksford - 2002 - In José Luis Bermúdez & Alan Millar, Reason and Nature: Essays in the Theory of Rationality. New York: Clarendon Press. pp. 135--174.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-09-10

Downloads
69 (#316,882)

6 months
11 (#246,005)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Giovanni Rolla
Universidade Federal da Bahia

References found in this work

Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind.Evan Thompson - 2007 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
The Predictive Mind.Jakob Hohwy - 2013 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.

View all 36 references / Add more references